"The Use of Forms"

The article, "The Use of Forms" presents an interesting view of post-modern art that emerged in the 1980's with the availability of computers and sampling. The article describes this new trend as a "reprocessing of form" (35). Rather than circulating original pieces of art, a group of artists known as the Situationist International argued that art should only be used to combine and create new forms of art. This art movement created the shift from High culture, defining art by is context on pedestals or hanging on gallery walls, to Low culture, breaking the traditional form of presentation of art.

This new "use of forms" is known as "detournement". This term applies not only to fine art, but also to other forms of art including music such as techno and hip-hop, and film. People today do not generally practice detournement as an attack against the modern culture as the Situationists did, but they practice it instead as a personalized form of expression. For example, DJ'ing combines different genres of music so that the types of music get more and more specific and therefore more and more personalized. One DJ states, "I'm sure that new music will be born from now on, unceasingly" (38). In film, detournemnet has been applied by breaking down the traditional genres so as not to be limited or restricted.

With today's technology available to the public and the sharing of forms that has become popular in the post-modern world, there has become less of a distinction between the "creator" and the "consumer." Because of this new trend, there is controversy of whether "remixing" original music pieces is ethical or not. More and more artists are encouraging others to edit and share their work, suggesting that detournemnent is not stealing, but rather a "reprocessing of form" (35).